This invention relates to a conveyor belt discharge apparatus, and more particularly concerns an apparatus and a method for removing flattened dough balls from a first conveyor belt and transferring them onto a second conveyor belt without damage to the flattened dough balls. The apparatus and method can be used for the removal of any article adhering to a conveyor belt, such as pizza shells or tortillas, but will be discussed in the context of tortillas.
Tortillas can be removed from one conveyor belt and transported to another by manual labor, but this is not commercially acceptable, because labor is relatively expensive and workers have difficulty removing the hot tortillas at the speed necessary for large volume commercial production. Workers also create disuniform spacing between tortillas and damage the tortillas, because of their tendency to adhere to the conveyor belt surface. In order to efficiently process tortillas there is a need to automate removal.
A prior attempt involved use of a foam roller, which was located immediately adjacent to the discharge end of the first conveyor belt. The foam roller consisted of a series of annular rings of closed cell polyethylene foam forming a tube fixedly secured around a driven shaft. As shown in FIG. 5, the first conveyor belt compresses the surface of the foam roller at the point of contact, so that the foam roller conforms to the curvature of the discharge end of the first conveyor belt. The surface of the foam roller catches the edge of the tortilla adhering to the belt and peels the tortilla away from the belt by a rotational movement opposite to the direction of belt movement and then the foam roller transports and places it on the receiving end of the second conveyor belt, which travels in the same direction as the first conveyor belt. Continued movement of the first and second conveyor belts, and of the foam roller, plus friction between the tortilla and the second conveyor belt, all work to transport the entire tortilla onto the second conveyor belt.
However, the foam roller is not an entirely satisfactory solution toward automated removal, because it wears out very rapidly, normally in one to seven days depending on conditions, and requires frequent replacement with resulting production down time. Once the foam roller is worn, it will not conform to the curved portion of the first conveyor belt during operation, which allows tortillas to stick to the first conveyor belt or fall in between the foam roller and either the first or second conveyor belts.
The present invention overcomes this basic problem by providing a conveyor belt discharge apparatus, which is extremely durable and requires little production down time for replacement. Preliminary tests indicate the present invention lasts approximately 20 to 150 times longer than a foam roller. Moreover, the replacement of worn out components of the present invention can be done within a few minutes by axially removing the component parts without movement of the first and second conveyor belt.